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Bush Greeted in Pakistan by Demonstrations, Nation-wide Strike Bush arrived in Islamabad to find it eerily quiet. The Islamic Action Council, which includes a group that helped train the Taliban, had called for a nation-wide strike to protest the visit. Streets of many cities were said to be strangely quiet, while in the northern Pushtun […]

Al-Hakim, UIA back Jaafari Sectarian Killings Raise Tension The killing, execution-style, of some 25 Shiite workers in a brick-making plant in Nahrawan by Sunni Arab guerrillas caused renewed ethnic tensions on Friday. Al-Zaman reports that [Ar.] Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance [Shiite religious parties] informed Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and […]

Friday Headlines to Make You Laugh and Cry at the Same Time “Rumsfeld Cautions against too Many Troops in Iraq”. I swear to God, that is what it says. “Iraq now ‘Less Safe’. Oh, I’d say so. “Pentagon Dismisses US Troop Poll”. A Pentagon spokesman actually said, “It shouldn’t surprise anybody that a deployed soldier […]

25 Dead in Sectarian Strike at Nahrawan Curfew in Baghdadd Sunni Arab guerrillas attacked Shiites in the town of Nahrawan. Some 25 are feared dead, with bodies being pulled out of a factory and some found in a field. I would say that a communal attack of this scale is symptomatic of civil war. Prime […]

Kurds, Sunnis Attempting to Dump Jaafari Violence Leaves 30 Dead Guerrilla violence killed 30 in Iraq on Wednesday. The Financial Times says “bloodshed in central Iraq continued into its third day on Wednesday, with at least 30 killed in bombings and mortar attacks in Baghdad and neighboring regions. In the worst of Wednesday’s attacks, 23 […]

Bomb Blast Near US Consulate in Karachi Jihadis set off a bomb in Karachi, Pakistan near the US consulate, killing 4 and wounding 49. Two of those killed are Americans, one a foreign service officer according to what I heard on Aljazeerah. The strike was intended to cast a pall over Bush’s visit to Pakistan […]

Blogads Poll It is time for the annual blogads poll of Informed Comment readers. The information gathered is most useful for the advertisers, who support a lot of the blogosphere, so I’m grateful to all who make time to answer these questions.

Golden Oldies – IC from before the Iraq War, 2003 No comment. – JC ——————- Thursday, February 27, 2003 A poster to one of the lists I am on wrote: “US policy is to allow no sanctuaries anywhere on the globe for anti-American terror groups. No training camps. No organizations, no fronts. No funding. No […]

Salon: Iraq’s worst week — and Bush’s Cole in the Chronicle My essay at Salon.com this week is: Iraq’s worst week — and Bush’s As Americans finally begin to grasp the magnitude of the Iraq catastrophe, Bush’s popularity hits a new low. By Juan Cole Here is an excerpt: “The catastrophe in Iraq, the scope […]